The Red Lily (Vampire Blood #2)(98)

Sienna was encased in gold, red, blue, and orange flames, her arms spread wide, palms up, the fire flickering from the tips of her fingers, sparking off of her crimson gown. The folds of her skirt billowed as she strode forward in long, confident strides, the downy snow melting as it hit her blazing aura. Her auburn hair floated around her head like a halo, burning bright with copper flames. The sight of her was stunning, but nothing compared to her face. Glowing with an inner light, her expression was one of a woman who knew her power, of a queen newly crowned, of a goddess wielding retribution upon her helpless enemies.

The hart wolves stepped aside as she walked the path, falling snow melting upon her halo of golden fire. The vampires, bloated on blood and their own superiority in the throes of sanguine furorem, charged toward her. Nikolai opened his mouth to warn her, but there was no need.

One by one, she felled them all. With a flick of her finger, blades of fire flew from her palm and found their mark, piercing the heart of each vampire in her way, incinerating them into ash from the inside out. The first twenty fell at her feet with frozen looks of shock right before her fire filled them and they died in a pile of black ash.

"Sienna," he whispered, unable to say anything more. Her name was a prayer of worship on his lips, the fire goddess lighting up the cold night with swift punishment for their enemies.

Volkov gurgled in his grasp. He'd almost forgotten. While vampires circled more cautiously, she drew closer to Nikolai.

"Let him go, my love."

He stared in awe, this woman he loved with all his heart, burning in a halo of flame that didn't touch her skin but rather kissed her with beauty and might. He dropped Volkov to the snow.

With one hand, she reached out. A curtain of flame shot from her body and lifted Volkov till he was hanging in the air almost in the boughs of the trees. He screamed, kicking and swinging his arms to no avail as the flames licked around his body.

"No mercy," said Sienna. She pulled an arm back and launched a ball of blue flame from her palm. Hitting him like a cannonball, it spun him up into the night as he bellowed and burned far into the woods till they could hear him no more.

With utmost calm, she sauntered forward to Nikolai, then faced the line of vampires encroaching on her right. "Fight with me, love."



       
         
       
        

Shaking off the awe, he put his back to her to face the vampires encroaching from the left. "As you wish, sweetheart."

Allora, Bron, Connell, and Dane circled in with them, readying to fight the vampire horde. They descended as one, falling in from the shadows and the trees, but they were no match for the hart wolves' ferocity, for Nikolai's skill, or for Sienna's fire-magic. One by one, the vampires fell till the few dozen that were left alive limped and skulked away back to the Glass Tower.

Allora in her white wolf form stood on the path and howled. She was met with a chorus of chilling howls, the crystalline night shaken with blood and death and the eerie baying of hart wolves in victory.

Nikolai watched as dozens of wolves ghosted past him, a few casting him a wary glance before trotting one after another back into the darkness. Some of them had shifted into human form, helping one another to carry their injured. And a few of their dead.

Striding forward to Sienna, Nikolai caught her gaze. Her blaze dimmed, the flames sucking back inside her body as he drew closer, leaving her with a slim ethereal glow.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, noting the blood staining his bare chest.

He had no words, gathering her into his arms before he crushed his mouth to hers and kissed her deep. Her fire still simmered on her skin, warming him in the most complete way. With a groan, he pulled away and pressed his forehead to hers, cupping the back of her head and keeping her there as he rocked gently. She kept her hands wrapped around his waist, giving him the moment he needed to be sure all was right. He opened his eyes to find Sienna watched him with her sweet green eyes, sparks of gold still flickering. All was so very right in his world.

A mournful wail broke them both apart. The howl was familiar.

"Allora," she said.

Nikolai grabbed her hand, and they ran off the trail to find Dane, the man, kneeling over his fallen brother, Connell, whose lifeless eyes stared up into the sky where snow drifted down onto his bronzed face and body. A snap of piercing electricity marked Allora's shift, then she knelt beside her brother weeping, cradling his head in her lap.

"No, dear Connell," she whispered, brushing his chestnut hair away from his brow. "No, dear one."